“When a government starts hiding parts of its past,” local lawmakers wrote, “it begins to look more like a regime that rewrites history rather than one that learns from it.”
3 weeks ago
The property subject to a historic nomination (Philadelphia Historical Commission)
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The Circle Theatre in Frankford is now part of the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.
The former movie theater was built in the late 1920s on Frankford Avenue — steps from the Arrott Transit Center. Once one of hundreds of movie palaces across the city, the property is now among the “relatively few survivors with significant architectural integrity,” according to a nomination submitted to the Philadelphia Historical Commission, which designated the property on Friday.
The theater, which seated nearly 3,000 people, closed in 1953. Today, several storefronts occupy the first floor, with the building’s ornate terra-cotta facade rising above them.
“While most neighborhood theaters probably had a pretty small geographic radius that people were coming from, the Circle was designed in this more flashy, elaborate style … and it was probably at least an attempt to get people to come from a little further away,” Ted Maust, a preservation planner at the historical commission, said.
The theater’s architects, Philadelphia-based Hoffman-Henon, were renowned for designing cinemas across the country and beyond, appearing in prominent trade publications for the motion picture industry.
Before their partnership, William Hoffman and Paul Henon were already acclaimed movie theater architects. And it made news when the two joined forces in 1919, with The Philadelphia Inquirer calling it “one of the biggest consolidations in architectural and engineering circles for some time,” according to the nomination.
The Circle Theatre, done in a Mission Revival style and featuring Spanish Baroque details, was one of several the firm designed for the Stanley Company of America, once the country’s largest movie theater chain. The pair also designed four theaters on Market Street, which was lined with more than a dozen movie palaces at the time.
The Circle was a standout when it came to movie theater interiors, featuring a dark blue ceiling, “electric star lighting” and “moving cloud effects” as part of a courtyard design, said Maust. It was the city’s only movie palace with an “atmospheric” interior, coming alive as the first “talkies” were released.
Most of the firm’s buildings did not survive or were significantly altered. Several of the ones that did are historically designated at some level, including the Bala Theatre in Lower Merion Township and the former Stanley Theatre (now the Benedum Center) in Pittsburgh.
Like many movie houses of that era, the Circle closed as television began cutting into the movie theater business. It then became a five-and-dime store.
“It’s pretty difficult to see a building like this being used as a single theater again, but it is a reminder of that history and sort of a visual landmark for a lot of people,” said Maust.
Going forward, any proposed changes to the theater’s exterior would need to be approved by the commission. The property will also be largely protected against demolition.
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